The Allianz Para World Swimming Championships 2023 have kicked off at the newly reopened Manchester Aquatics Centre

The Allianz Para World Swimming Championships 2023 have kicked off here in Manchester at the recently reopened Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Around 600 athletes from 70 nations will be battling it out in our city between July 31 and August 6 in the biggest Para Swimming event outside of the Paralympic Games.

This is the third time the annual competition has been held in Great Britain, with London hosting the championships in 2019, where 188 records were broken, including 39 world records.

We spoke to athletes ahead of the competition, and witnessed World champion and Paralympic silver medalist Stephen Clegg scrape a PB in his first heat of the games in the mens 100m backstroke.